The President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev said that Russia is no longer able to finance projects in his country because of the drop in the economy. Now Bishkek is forced to look for new investors.

Having the economic downturn because of falling oil prices at the background, Russia is no longer able to fund two previously agreed projects in Kyrgyzstan worth about $3 billion. This was told on Thursday at the annual press conference by the President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev.

“It is clear that in the current situation when Russia’s economy is not booming, and oil prices continue to fall, Russia, I think, will not be able to implement these agreements, for objective reasons” – quoted Reuters the words of Atambayev.

He added that he had discussed the situation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A spokesman of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the situation was indeed discussed this week with Vladimir Putin.

“Indeed, there are the difficulties of commercial and conjunctural nature, and various options are discussed”, – quotes the agency his words. – “Conjunctural problems are the problems associated with the global economy, with the parameters of the budget, and with financial parameters,” – said Peskov.

Reuters reminds that Russia has promised Kyrgyzstan to build a new Upper-Naryn hydro power plant (HPP), and powerful Kambarata HPP-1 in September 2012, when the Russian president visited Bishkek, forgiving the country almost $500 million of debt. Both projects together are valued at more than $3 billion.

“Kyrgyzstan, of course, has to get out of these agreements, and to seek for other investors for both, the Upper Naryn cascade, and Kambarata-1, because we have no right to stop these projects. I talked about this with Putin, and found a full understanding, “- said Atambayev, stressing that sometimes it is necessary “to take crucial decisions based on reality”.